Barry Chuckle has died, aged 73

Not so's you'd notice, though. It was more of a re-recording than a revamp.

I was never really keen on anything in the last few series'. As you say, from about 2004 they only showed episodes from 2000 onwards which had been edited down terribly to 15 minutes to fit their timeslots. New episodes from 2002 onwards were 15 minutes long and to be honest I'd rather they'd just shown these episodes. Anything pre 2000 was to be no more, sadly, with only one exception during the World Cup in 2010 when they broadcast the episode 'Football Heroes' in its full 20 minute glory. I believe this is the only time since 2004 a pre 2000 episode has been broadcast. Of course, by the end of 2011 CBBC had stopped showing Chucklevision altogether and the only broadcast since has been the 2008 Christmas special in 2013.

Hopefully more series will come out on DVD, only the first 3 are out right now (and only the third series is the show as we all know it).

I think it was the year they made the series where it was all one long dramatic arc, rather than stand alone episodes, where things changed. It was never really the same after that.

I think that was the same series where they started cutting it down to 15 minutes.

Harman is Paul's middle name.

Was it possibly their mother's maiden name too?

Indeed it was, and as mentioned, the reason it was called Chucklevision was because it was about the pair running a TV station and it was mostly studio-bound, which is an idea that went out of the window after the second series. The story in the middle then spun off into a series of its own called Mersey Tales, which was actually shown on the same day as the third series of Chucklevision - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1989-12-02#at-8.00

Of course it was originally a BBC Manchester production and was one of the few shows to survive their children's department closing down in the early nineties. Why Don't You and Activ8 also continued, now made out of London (and the latter then moved to Glasgow) but clearly Chucklevision was the last legacy of that department, by several years.

Nobody's mentioned my favourite episode of Chucklevision, which was the one guest starring Roy Castle where they tried to get in the Guinness Book of Records, and Barry sang Doin' The Do at him for 24 hours. That one's not on YouTube anymore, alas.



Double Dare was getting on a bit as well, they started tinkering with the format and then for half a series it was replaced by Clockwise which had moved from the afternoon. Was it on here where someone suggested that Get Your Own Back had originally been intended for a slot on Going Live as well? That would make sense, it clearly had a similar budget and looked quite similar. So seemingly they were trying other things out.

As you say, Double Dare was an acquired format so presumably one reason for replacing it with Run The Risk was because it was a wholly-owned BBC format which they could exploit as they saw fit and not pay licencing fees.

Initially Double Dare played a really pivotal role in Going Live, Peter Simon was in the Going Live studio every week doing bits and bobs, as well as introducing Saturday Starts Here as mentioned, and the two shows' sets looked very similar and they presented it as if Double Dare was live. Later on Double Dare became just another insert and they rarely mentioned it on the rest of the show, and Peter Simon was hardly ever live.

Looking at old episodes, the first three series have a "BBC North West" copyright, but series 4 onwards just have the BBC logo, so presumably that's the point production switched away from Manchester.



I have vague memories of that episode, I remember something about one of them playing a keyboard continuously, but one of their other stunts leading to the power cutting out a matter of seconds before breaking the record. I don't recall seeing that one in later CBBC channel repeats in the 00s, maybe they didn't show that one?

The first series of Get Your Own Back was I think only 15 minutes long, so I can understand it possibly being intended to be a Going Live insert with being so short.

They were definitely still airing that one in 2004 - I remember being a bit astonished to see Roy as I assumed at the time the repeat run was much more recent than that. CBBC really were supporting the show hugely then, regularly repeating almost all of it on the channel. Makes it all the more odd that just a few years later they were cutting the episodes timing-wise and quietly broadcasting the new ones with little fanfare.

They'd obviously decided 60-something men weren't what they wanted on the channel, seems like them killing the show by stealth as it was too popular to just cancel outright. The final two series were cut to just 6 episodes and the final series was chucked out uncerimoniously just before Christmas. A good way to kill a previously popular show you want rid of.

Peter Simon was a regular on Saturday Superstore too, albeit in a very minor role as one of Keith Chegwin's assistants on the outside broadcasts.


Considering what he did its odd to think he was one of only two people that appeared on Superstore and were kept on for the new programme